St. Paddy's Day Shenanigans

This St. Paddy's Day was my first one as a legally drinking adult in the United States.  Last year I was 21, but I was in London, in a pub called the Hobgoblin eating Thai food while listening to a fiddle band and a short Irish bloke in a football jersey curse out the bartender for not pouring his Guinness quickly enough.  It was perfect.

This year, St. Patrick's Weekend was jam-packed full of things to do with fun people and ridiculously good food. On Friday, my friends Ally and Julie came to my house for a sleepover, so I decided on an Irish-themed menu: Irish soda bread, "meat" and potato stew, and Irish Car Bomb ice cream floats.

I used Ina Garten's soda bread recipe. Since this bread doesn't call for yeast, and therefor doesn't need any time to rise, you can make and bake it in under an hour.  My Italian grandmother used to make soda bread every year, but I used to absolutely hate it.  It was always really dry and baking soda-y.  While this recipe calls for currants and only a teaspoon of orange zest, I used golden raisins and used whole orange worth of zest - the plump raisins have more sweetness than the currants, and the zest gave it a punch of flavor that my grandmother's was always lacking.  (In defense of my grandma: while her soda bread wasn't her finest work, her spaghetti sauce is killer, and I have yet to be able to replicate it on my own.)

The "meat" and potato stew came from one of my favorite vegan recipe sources: Post Punk Kitchen.  I used her Seitan Porcini Beef Stew recipe with a few minor changes.  I could not find dried porcini mushrooms anywhere, so in their place, I used a medley of fresh mushrooms - the package included oyster, shiitake, and baby protobello.  Instead of throwing them into the stew towards the end, I sauteed them with the onions and garlic on a low heat, so that they browned, but didn't shrivel and get lost in the stew.  Now I'm not big on meat replacement products, mainly because I tend to stray away from processed foods.  However, I found some un-beef strips at Trader Joe's whose ingredients list wasn't lengthy or full of unrecognizable products, so I decided to try them out instead of the vegan sausage.  They actually worked really well - they tasted like the rest of stew, but added the meaty texture that was needed.  And the stew was perfect.  It was exactly the meat and potato dish that I had been craving for the day and went extremely well with a Guinness.

I saw the recipe for the Irish Car Bomb floats about a week ago on Petite Kitchenesse and was trying to come up the perfect excuse to make them.  Thanks again to Ally and Julie for allowing themselves to act as my excuse.  Since making ice cream is a little labor intensive (especially dairy-free), I bought a pint of regular vanilla ice cream and a pint of coconut milk vanilla ice cream, put them in the stand mixer with some Baileys, and then put it back into their cartons and let it reform in the freezer.  We learned that the more ice cream the better.  Also, if you're adding the whiskey-caramel on top, know that it immediately sinks to the bottom, so give it a good stir before sipping, unless you enjoy a big mouthful of sweet whiskey deliciousness, which I do.

Saturday, I headed into the city to see Once, an incredible new musical set in Ireland, where the actors are also the orchestra, and the music is Irish and folksie - I downloaded the soundtrack as soon as I got home and have been listening to it non-stop.  We started the evening out at my aunt and uncles house in Bronxville with some wine and Irish cheeses.  Then trained into the city where we had dinner at The Glass House Tavern, a cozy little joint in the middle of the theater district.  It was surprisingly well-priced for where we were and the quality of the food.  I did the prix fix dinner and got black truffle risotto, Alaskan salmon filet over roasted corn and cous cous "risotto", and a warm chocolate cake with fresh berries for $35.  And the food was amazing.  Beyond amazing.  Not only did it taste good, but the presentation and portions of everything were wonderful.  Not to mention the little Irish soda bread rolls that came before the meal.  Between dinner and the show, it was an amazing way to spend the day.

My Sicilian grandmother(who can't make soda bread)'s birthday is St. Patrick's Day, so today we headed over her house for a little throw together celebration.  I was given the task of cake baking, and since my grandma is a huge Bailey's fan, I decided to make another recipe I've been looking for an excuse to make for a while now: Irish Car Bomb cake - do you see a theme emerging for this weekend?  I used a recipe from the Brown Eyed Baker, but made a cake instead of cupcakes.  I also ran out of time to make my own icing, but just mixed the Bailey's into some store bought icing I had in the pantry, and it worked just fine.  Before I put the chocolate whiskey ganache filling in between the cakes, I drizzled some whiskey onto the exposed cake so that it soaked in.  It ended up not being the prettiest cake, but it was wonderfully delicious and paired perfectly with a pint of Guinness.

Tonight, my mother and I had the actual Irish Car Bomb cocktail which is a Boiler Maker with Guinness and a shot of half Bailey's half whiskey.   All in all, it turned out to be an absolutely fantastic St. Paddy's weekend - even though it was lacking a tiny foul-mouthed Irishman.

Berries (Blue + Black + Straw) = Pi

My attempt at making a pi symbol in the crust.

It's the day again.  The day that we eagerly await all year, the excitement building as it gets closer, writing and re-writing our letters to Euclid hoping that he'll leave presents in the pie tins we leave sitting out on our kitchen tables.  Yes, today is Pi Day, March 14th, in honor of the irrational constant that represents the ratio of any circle's circumference to its diameter - 3.1419526, oh, you know the rest.

To celebrate this momentous day, I have broken out my Pi Day t-shirt made in 8th grade for Mrs. Conway's Algebra class.  Alright, can I just say this, to get it out of the way?  I love Algebra.  I know, I just graduated with a degree in English Creative Writing, which means that I should have a natural aversion to mathematics and science, but I love Algebra and Physics and Chemistry.  Finding x, God, I could spend all day finding x.  Whew!  I feel so much better now that that's off my chest.  I actually just got finished helping my brother with his factoring homework, and I felt momentarily fulfilled by the simple multiplication.  I think its the simplicity.  And the idea that there's an definite answer.  You are able to come to a conclusion, to finish, to accomplish something with a bit of easy and simple logic.  Sigh, if only life were as simple as foiling.

It being Pi Day and all, what to make for dinner was a no brainer - just like the square root of 65,536 - I made not one, but two pies.  I mean, for God's sake, it's Pi Day!  It only comes once a year, and what better way to celebrate than with sweet and savory pies.  To be honest, I think that pie may be the perfect food.  Yeah, I said it, the perfect food.  There's a pie for every season, occasion, meal, taste, temperature.  Fruit pies, custard pies, pot pies, quiche, spanakopita, meat pies.  There are so many variations, that you really could just live on pies for the rest of your life if you wanted to - and let's be real, who wouldn't?

When I was little, I used to hate the crusts and would just scrape out the sweet gooey filling, leaving a shelled-out carcass of dough. As I grew and my horizons were broadened, I embraced the flaky, buttery, crunchy texture that crusts add to the pie.  However, my focus still remains on the filling, so I usually make a one crust pie (either a bottom or top crust).

Speaking of crusts, a doughy crust is the worst.  I don't think I've mentioned my bitter hatred for soggy things - wow, you're learning a whole lot about me today.  Cereal that's been sitting too long, cookies dunked in milk, socks wet from the rain, and especially soggy pie dough.  That's why I tend toward a top crust, which insures maximum golden brown flakiness.  However, when baking ridiculously over-stuffed pies - like the berry one I made tonight - two crust are sometimes necessary.  And don't scoff at the store-bought crusts.  If you have the time and energy to make a crust from scratch, awesome.  But the frozen ones are quick and easy, especially the roll out kind, because you can mold them into whatever size or shape you need.  Plus, always having a couple crusts in the freezer is perfect for spontaneous pie making.

Seafood Pot Pie
2 tbs olive oil
1 medium yellow onion, roughly chopped
3 stalks celery, roughly chopped
1 cup carrots, roughly chopped 
6 cloves garlic, minced
1 medium sweet potato, peeled and chopped into bite sized pieces
1 20 oz container of cut, uncooked butternut squash
1 tbs rosemary leaves
1 tbs thyme
2 tbs fresh basil, cut into strips
4 cups vegetable broth
½ cup frozen peas
½ cup frozen corn
1 bag frozen seafood medley (a la Trader Joe's)
2 tbs cold butter, cut into cubes
3 tbs all-purpose flour
1 sheet frozen pie crust
salt and pepper to taste

Golden-crusted Seafood Pie

+ Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
+ In a large pot or sauce pan, saute onion, celery, carrot, and garlic in olive oil over low-medium heat.
+ Once the veggies become translucent, add the sweet potato and butternut squash.  Then add the rosemary, thyme, basil, and salt and pepper.  Saute for a few minutes, or until the onion, celery, and carrot just begin to brown.
+ Add the vegetable broth, cover, and turn the heat to medium-high.  Cook until the potato and squash are fork tender.  If the broth begins to boil, turn heat down so that it maintains a simmer.
+ Stir in the peas, corn, and seafood.  Turn the heat up slightly.  Taste and season accordingly.
+ In a measuring cup, fork together the butter and flour, until it gets a crumbly texture.  Spoon in a few tablespoons of broth from the pot.  Mix together until a thick rue begins to form, add more broth or more flour if needed (it should look like pancake batter).
+ Slowly pour the rue into the pot, stirring constantly, until desired thickness is reached.  If too thin, just mix a bit of flour and broth in the measuring cup.  If too thick, add a bit of water.
+ On a lightly floured surface, roll out the crust so that it's large enough to cover a 9x13 baking dish.
+ Pour the filling into the baking dish.  Cover with crust, poking a few holes in the top.
+ Bake for an hour, or until the crust is golden brown.

Triple Berry Orange Ginger Pie
1 pint blueberries
1 pint blackberries
1 pint strawberries, quartered
1 tbs fresh ginger, grated
¼  cup honey
¼  cup all-purpose flour
½ orange, juice and zest
2 sheets pie crust


+ Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
+ Put all the berries in a large bowl.  Gently fold in the ginger, honey, flour, juice, and zest.  Cover and refrigerate while completing next steps.
+ Unroll one pie crust into a pie pan.  Fill with pie weights or beans, and bake for 7-10 minutes, just before the crust begins to brown.
+ On a lightly floured surface, roll out the second crust so that its about two inches wider than the pan.
+ Fill cooked crust with berries, then place the rolled out crust on top.  Cut any excess dough from the edges, and secure the crust tightly around the edges.
+ Bake for an hour, or until the crust is golden brown.  Serve with vanilla ice cream, fresh whipped cream, or a tall flute of bubbly.